


Bitten

by ZeroMonster



Series: Bodyache (Teen Wolf au) [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Female Chuck Hansen, Gen, Genderswap, M/M, POV Multiple, Slow Build, Supernatural Creatures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:39:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8889358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeroMonster/pseuds/ZeroMonster
Summary: Lacrosse games, jobs at the library, the probably unhealthy love of teens for their cars.Animal attacks, hunters, torn skin cursed by moonlight. A Pacific Rim teen wolf au.
 
Mako cried out, “Stop the car! Stop - Chuck!”
The car stops and he violently crashes against Mako’s seat. “What-” 
It’s immediately evident something’s wrong. Raleigh's never heard Mako raise her voice. When he looks up at her, she’s tense, startling so, like a predator waiting to pounce on her prey. She’s staring straight ahead at the dark road, unblinking. What worries Raleigh the most are the black daggers she now has in each of her hands.
“Where’d you get those?” He asks, voice an octave higher than normal.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so late to the party. Also, I pulled apart seasons 1 to 3 of TW and this was the result... I don't know what happened, but please, take this monster away from me. I said the same to my gorgeous Kdin. I love you.

The roses the guys gave her are starting to die. They were goodbye roses and she put them in a vase on top of her old dresser at the new house. The house is new, the town is not.

She picks the dried petals up and pockets them in an act of sudden melancholia. Mako takes a deep breath and looks at her reflection. It looks back at her, determined. She can do this, she’s done worse things –  _way worse_ – and she’s still alive and relatively sane. She can survive the first day at a new school; she’s done it many times before.  

Only this time is different, because she’s coming back to Beacon Hills after years of moving non stop across the world with Sensei. This is the first time they’ve came back to settle in a town for the second time.

Mako picks her backpack up and rushes down to the kitchen before she can make herself more anxious.  

They’d tried to buy the old house back but it wasn’t on sale, those houses were on the oldest part of town, near the forest; the new house is closer to midtown. She prefers the old view, but likes the design of this one better.

She kisses her father good morning, sits at the counter and almost chokes with her juice. Her father gives her a sidelong glance. She hasn’t verbalized her insecurities but he probably knows anyway, there’s no one in the world who knows her better than him. They’d moved the summer she finished 5th grade and making friends was always hard with what they do. It’s been only the two of them since her parents died.

On the ride to her new highschool she looks out the window and tries to remember the streets, the landmarks and turns, she thinks she’s successful but that could be false.

Instead of being a comfort, the fact that this is not a strange place only serves to throw her off, she’s used to be unknown.

This is happening so fast, she’s only been in town four days and the first two she’d been busy with boxes and dust and more boxes, there’s been no time to re-familiarize herself with Beacon Hills’ unique charm. But she’d had friends, she remembers, there was Alison and Tendo and Chuck.

“Nervous?” Asks her father.

“No,” she answers with that special little smile: the curve of her lips barely there, her head a little bowed and her eyes dancing. The smile that says she’s faced scarier things and only a few have survived her. “I’m more worried about you.”

That makes him laugh. “Me? I think I can manage,” he looks at her fondly and she changes her smile to a more affectionate one to pacify him.

She knows he worries about her, and that he feels more than a little guilty for having introduced her to the monsters under the bed. But they would have found her either way.

“You know what you’ll do about your new job?”

“The official, or the unofficial one?”   

“The official one,” she answers quickly. In her head she still has to separate things, put information in neat boxes and some of it in cages so it can’t escape. So she won’t accidentally spill it in the middle of a normal conversation with normal teenagers.

“Not yet,” he shrugs, “something will come around.” Before she can continue to distract herself, the Pan-Pacific Academy appears in front of them.

They park a couple of streets away and Mako opens the door, she could stay in the car a few more minutes – she’s early – but she'd rather not postpone the pain.

“Have a good day,” says her father and kisses her forehead. Then, before she’s completely out of the car: “Hey! You got this.” She smiles is response.

 

* * *

“Raleigh!”

His head hits the hood of the car when he tries to look up. “Ouch!”

Yancy appears on the garage threshold and takes in the scene in front of him. “It’s useless, it won’t start.”

“It’s not useless, I’m going to fix it,” he says through gritted teeth. _It hurts._

Yancy rolls his eyes. “Well, for the moment, it’s useless and you won’t fix it because I’m driving your ass to school, so hurry.”

He checks his clothes for grease stains and thankfully doesn’t find any. “I’m ready,” he looks up, but Yancy's no longer there. He grabs his backpack and an orange from the kitchen and hurries to the front yard where Yancy is already on the driver seat of –

"The patrol?” He groans. “Really? It’s not exactly subtle.”

Yancy looks unimpressed, Raleigh winces but he gets on the passenger seat, Yancy starts the car and Raleigh realizes now that the orange was a mistake because if he tries to eat it now it’ll get messy and sticky and Yancy doesn’t like either of those things near the police car.

“Do you want to pick Tendo up?” asks his brother. That would be _horrible._ Maybe he should do it. Raleigh suddenly brightens up at the idea of picking Tendo up and making him ride on the back. Just picturing his face at that makes him giggle and he coughs to cover it.

“Um, no. He said he would ride his bike there.”

Raleigh usually drives both Tendo and himself to school but the car had refused to start since last Friday, and it’s not that he’s not grateful for having a ride to school - especially because he knows Yancey’s technically on working hours –  it’s just, driving in a police car already lost its appeal.

An apple falls suddenly on his lap. Raleigh glances at his brother who is still staring ahead at the road. “Forget the orange, take that apple.”

Raleigh grins. “You’ll be home for dinner?”

“Yup. Make something edible.”

Raleigh scoffs, “Always do. It’s _you_ who keeps burning the rice and undercooking the meat.” Yancy doesn’t deny it. Raleigh eats his apple.

They approach the school, and Raleigh says, “Hey, park here, I can walk to the gate.”

“What? Worried I would embarrass you?” Yancy teases, but slows down.

“Well, _yeah._ You’re very embarrassing.”

Raleigh gets out of the car before Yancy can take retaliation.  He tosses the orange to Yancy to replace the apple he ate.

“Don’t get cocky kid.”

Raleigh laughs.

He walks to the bike parking and finds Tendo there. His friend drapes an arm across his shoulders in greeting.

“Becket! My man. So, when’d you say your car’s gonna be fixed?”

Raleigh rolls his eyes, not really irritated. “I didn’t say.”

“I hope it’s soon. I’m dying here, dude.”

Raleigh raises his eyebrows, “It’s not even fifteen minutes from your house to the school.”

“Yeah, but the ride is not an easy one on bike, I’m telling you. There are potholes deep enough to end in hell.”

“You’re so out of shape it’s amazing.”

Tendo glares at him. “Not all of us can be built like a brick wall,” he says, giving Raleigh a meaningful look. “And it’s not like I _need_ to be on shape.”

“I’m not – I’m really not.”

“Eloquent.”

“Shut, up.” Raleigh shoves him playfully. “What’re you going to do when I carry your ass to lacrosse tryouts?”

Tendo snorts. “Yeah, right.” Then he sees Raleigh’s face. “Wait, you serious?”

Raleigh swallows. “Very.”

Tendo looks like he just told him he’s leaving school to swim with sharks. Covered in blood.

“I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines. It’s driving me crazy.”

Tendo looks at him, searching something. “Wow, yeah, okay. I’m with you man.” Tendo punches his shoulder and grins at him. “I have your back.”

“Thanks, man.” He sighs.

“But, just to be clear. By  _I’m with you_ I mean I’ll be out the field. On the bleachers. Cheering for you.”

Raleigh gives him a look _._

“No, no, don’t look at me like that. We have to address the very obvious fact that I _suck_. I suffered enough on freshman year. I like my lungs where they are.” He grasps at his shirt. “Inside my body.”

“Fine. You’re gonna still help me with practice, though.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“I’m going to make a schedule – damn I need to fix the car soon, all the equipment– ”  

He stops talking when he notices Tendo is no longer listening him and instead he’s trying very hard to look like he’s not staring at something above Raleigh’s shoulder. Raleigh follows his gaze and finds himself looking at a girl.

Chuck Hansen is walking towards them – more like towards the front door – earphones on and ginger strands of hair floating around her face.

“Dude, you’re delusional,” Raleigh informs his best friend. He frankly doesn’t understand. Yes, Chuck Hansen is gorgeous, but she’s also mean - and prone to violence.

“What? I’m just looking,” Tendo tries to look innocent, and fails. “And I’m not suicidal. I do know who her father is.”

“Everybody knows the sheriff.”

God’s gift to Pan-Pacific Academy – not his words – strides past them without a second glance. In that moment, the first bell rings and they hurry inside.

 

* * *

 

Newt has to get a car, seriously, riding his bike to school is bad for his health. He chains the torture device and power walks to the door. Maybe he could guilt trip his parents into buying him a car. That sounds awful, is he awful? No, riding the bike to school on a _daily basis_ is awful. He won’t survive another year like this.

As soon as he’s through the door, he makes a beeline for his new locker.  He finds it easy enough. He also finds one of his locker neighbors already putting her books and scarf inside.

“Hansen.” He says, the Australian glances down at him, a fact that would never cease to amaze Newt because they are _the_ _same height_.

“Newton.”

He wants to wince at the sound of his full name but that would mean letting her win and he can’t let that happen. First, he lets her have this one, next thing he knows, she’s valedictorian. Never mind it’s junior year, they’ve been competing since they both skipped 8th grade.

Newt also wanted to skip sophomore year because that word is weird and he hates it, but his parents didn’t let him. There was a fight and a lot of phrases like: _‘worried about you’_ and _‘emotional intelligence’_ and _‘what happened to your curtains, Newt’_.

“So it seems we’re gonna see a lot of each other this year.”

“Just my luck,” she answers. Charming.

“You’re a delightful person, has anyone told you that? I bet they haven’t.”

She just rolls her eyes and strides away. Newt lets himself enjoy the view for a second, when he turns around he almost jumps out of his skin. A Chinese boy smiles amused by this, he’s putting notebooks and some rubber balls inside the other locker beside Newt.

He recognizes the boy as one of the Wei triplets – god just knows which one exactly –  famous for the very fact than they are triplets, exceptionally good at lacrosse and like pranks.

“Hey! You’re the guy with a name like a salamander, right?”

“Newt, yes. And you are...” He doesn’t know if it’s rude to imply that he can’t tell him apart from his brothers. “Sorry.”

“Nah, no problem. I’m Jin.” Jin closes his locker – and Newt knows it’s futile, he still won’t be able to tell them apart – and flings his bag to his shoulder. “See you later, salamander guy!”  

O-kay, that happened.

Newt’s first class is AP English. He shares the class with that Russian boy that inexplicably isn’t in the lacrosse team. Hell, not even in the football team, although football’s a joke in Beacon Hills. But Newt doesn’t seat with him, instead he chooses the free seat next to a light haired boy that seems a little lost in his head.

“Hi, Raleigh.”

“Hey, Newt.”

They’re not exactly friends – Newt doesn’t really have friends – but they talk occasionally.

“Fancy seeing you here.” It’s not that Raleigh’s stupid or anything like that, it’s just that Newt has never seen him in any other AP classes before, he mostly knows him for the lacrosse debacle on freshman year. Raleigh shrugs.

“Hi, guys.” A little brunette says, and takes the seat in front of Raleigh.

“Hi, Alison.” Says Raleigh.

He likes Alisson, she’s kind and smart. He already thinks this class won’t be so terrible. Maybe. Hopefully.

 

***

 

The woman at the registration desk had insisted in walking her to her class, ignoring Mako’s attempts to dissuade her. And now, his English teacher is one of _those people_.

“Well class, why don’t you introduce yourselves with your name and an interesting fact about yourselves?” There are immediately diverse reactions from the class to this but none of them amused.

Mako listens but after a while, she only can recall a boy with a cane whose name is Hermann and a blonde girl named Sasha. What is she supposed to say? _My name is Mako and right now I’m carrying two knives with me_. At the end she tells them she played hockey back in Canada.

After that, the rest of her classes are uneventful and before she knows it, it’s lunch period. She stays after the class is over to talk to the teacher, to ask if there’s something she should know apart from what was said on class because she just transferred. Apparently there isn’t, so she turns to leave and promptly smashes the door against someone’s face while she’s opening it.

She winces.

The growl at the other side of the door is positively murderous, but human, so Mako risks pocking her head out to analyze the damage.

A ginger is clutching her nose wearing an expression between furious and homicidal. Mako’s sure she’s about two seconds of having her head separated from her body. It’s a familiar feeling.

“Sorry,” she apologizes at the same time the other girl says, “ _What’s your problem?_ ”

She has a thick Australian accent filled with emotion and that too, is familiar. “Chuck?” she asks, disbelief soaking her tone. How many aggressive Australian girls attend Pac-Pacific?

The girl just rolls her eyes, clearly not surprised at being recognized. She huffs impatiently, probably wondering if her prey is trying to buy time.

“Wait. Wait, it’s me, Mako. Oh god, I’m so sorry.”

“Who?” Chuck cuts her.

“Um… we lived next to each other when we were children?”  She tries. “Your father used to let us have sleepovers and mine taught us to swim in the lake at the preserve.”

Chuck blinks at her. The hallway is too silent. Just when Mako starts to think she’s probably wrong, Chuck speaks.

“Mori? But you - left.” Chuck tilts her head and she suddenly looks nine again.

“I’m back.”  She smiles, she can’t help it.

Chuck looks hesitant. “You stopped calling.” She says dryly.

Mako winces. She did. “I–I’m...” Mako is surprised when Chuck starts laughing. And then she’s hugging her.

“Oh mate, your _face!_ ” Mako can do nothing but hug back. “Mako! I can’t believe you’re back. You’re back, right? You finishing school in Beacon?”

“I am,” she grins, relieved beyond words. And then, when Chuck just looks at her, “What?”

“You’ve changed so much,” Chuck appraises her. “I like the blue highlights.”

Mako thinks: _thank you._ But what comes out of her mouth is, “ _I_ changed? Look at _you!_ ”

And for the first time she _looks_ at her childhood friend. Chuck is wearing a strapless dress, a denim jacket and ankle boots, her copper hair falling in soft curls framing her face – a little flushed because of the slam with the door –.  

When they were children she lived in pants and plain t-shirts, a consequence of living with a single father that didn’t quite knew what to do with a little girl. Mako would know.

“What happened to you?”

Chuck grins. “Puberty.” She starts walking. “Come on, what do you have now?”

“Lunch period.”

“Me too! This,” she entwines theirs arms, “is going to be awesome.”

 

* * *

 

Raleigh’s had a monthly appointment with Doctor Tamsin since spring last year, when it got so bad that one of his teachers talked about him at an academic meeting and they decided he had to see the school’s therapist.  

It’s not that bad, Doctor Tamsin Sevier has helped him a lot and a lot of students have constant appointments with her, so it isn’t weird.

“Good morning, Raleigh.”

“Hello doc.”

She stops typing on her laptop to look at him with a serene smile as he sits on an orange plastic chair in front of her.

“How was summer?”

“Good, keeping busy helps.”

She nods. “Any problems sleeping?”

He shrugs. “Insomnia. The usual.”

“And your eating habits?”

“All good.”

“You look a little better than last time.” She says kindly.

“Yeah, I do feel slightly better -  I was thinking,” He looks at his lap, “I was thinking about going to the tryouts.”

She nods again, but this time slower. Everybody knows about his fleeting act two years ago. It definitely didn’t help his self-esteem.

“Why?” She asks with her best therapist voice, so she doesn’t sounds threatening.

He hasn’t asked himself that, he just wants to. But he feels like he has to say something.

“Because it’s something I’m good at and – I need that.”

Her smile’s a different as she says, “I think you should, and I wish you good luck.”

“Thanks.” He means it, he wasn’t really sure if it was a good idea. He’s always been impulsive, even before the depression-anxienty combo made it worse.

When he leaves the office, he sees a boy sitting on a yellow chair obviously waiting for his own appointment.  

“Hey Hu, you can go in now."

“Hey, Raleigh, thanks.” He says and pats his shoulder on his way in.

Hu and his brothers are in the lacrosse team since they started high school, and they were there with Raleigh when he was first line. They were good and since then, he’s seen them get better under Coach Vanessa’s guidance.  

He hasn’t work with her because she replaced the last coach, who refused to let Chuck Hansen on the team because _a girl could get hurt._ Raleigh shakes his head at that. Now, Hansen’s captain of the team - which he doesn’t know how to feel about, but she earned it, and he’s determined to earn his place too. 

 

* * *

 

AP English, AP Biology and now, AP Calculus. Newt’s life’s the same as always.

He hides the Batman comic he was reading under his textbook when the teacher asks him to take the chalk. She has this idea that friendly competition is good for them, and now they have to stand in pairs in front of the blackboard and solve an equation as fast as they can and decide if they rather lose so the other person doesn’t hate them, or win to prove they aren’t stupid.

He still solves the equation very fast, but his partner puts the chalk down way before him and leaves Newt to blinking stupidly at him.

Then he notices who he was going against. Hermann Gottlieb. Well, that’s not fair. 

Newt frowns at him even though he knows it’s childish, and Hermann raises an eyebrow at him. The teacher calls up the next pair and Newt returns to his seat to sulk.

What is Hermann Gottlieb even doing in high school anymore? How the NASA hasn’t kidnapped him yet?

Newt tries to go back to his comic but he can’t, he glances at Hermann and he’s not even upset anymore. Hermann’s interesting to him in ways very few people are. His mind works in a way Newt hasn’t ever seen.  If it didn’t sound so creepy, he would ask to be allowed to get know his brain better. Hermann would surely hit him with his cane, Newt thinks.

Hermann glances back at Newt and he looks away but it probably wasn’t fast enough.

 

* * *

 

“So, wait,” they’re sitting at a table under the windows at the cafeteria, Chuck keeps scanning the flow of students, distracted, “you skipped 8th grade?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re on the same grade?”

“Yeah.” At last Chucks gives up on whatever she was doing and beams at her. “So why are you back Mako? Missed me too much?”

Mako huffs, obviously something happened while she was gone that increased Chuck’s ego to titanic proportions. It was probably the lipstick. “Actually, Sensei got a call, we had to come back.”

“What kind of call?” asks Chuck, picking a slice of fruit with her perfect manicured fingers. “He’s still retired, right?” Herc Hansen and Mako’s father were in the same unit when both of them were piloting for the military.

“Yes,” she picks at her lunch too, “I don’t know, a personal call.” She lies, shrugging. Chuck doesn’t seem inclined to inquire more. Mentioning her father has that kind of effect.

Not for the first time she notices people glancing at her. She’s receiving way too much attention and she knows it’s because of Chuck. Mako doesn’t know how high her friend is in the popularity ladder, but she’s willing to bet it’s pretty high.

“You can ask.” Chuck’s smile is pleased.

“Just to clear it up.” She gestures vaguely. “How popular are you?”

“I like to think at this point I already transcended popularity.”

“How? What’d you do?” Mako laughs.

“Sacrificed a virgin every full moon.”

Mako’s face must do something that shows how _not_ funny she finds that, because Chuck sighs. “Sorry, Sasha’s rubbing up on me. Hey! Speak of the devil.”

Sasha – the blonde girl from her class - strides to their table holding the hand of a downright gorgeous blond boy. They’re both stunning and Mako feels a little intimidated. Sasha notices Mako and nods at her, taking the seat across from her. The boy takes the one across from Chuck.

“You ditched me, mate.”

Don’t call me mate.” Sasha says.

"Okay… bro.”

“Hi, I’m Sasha,” she says, turning to Mako, “and this is Aleksis.” She gestures to the blond boy, who nods at her.

“Where’d you get your new friend?” He asks Chuck.

“I’m Mako, I just moved from Canada back to Beacon Hills. I went to middle school with Chuck.” Never have she needed someone to speak for her and she’s not going to start now.

“True, but I was one year behind,” the ginger finishes easily. Aleksis smiles and it feels sincere.

“I remember,” says Sasha, “you’re on my English class.” She sounds amused and Mako notices she and Aleksis both have accents. _Russian, maybe?_

Mako relaxes and she spends the rest of the hour eating comfortable amongst Chuck and her friends. For the first time since she came back, she feels like herself.

 

* * *

 

Raleigh arrives to the field a little late because Tendo was flirting with Alison.

“Didn’t you have a crush on Chuck Hansen?”

Tendo shrugs, “Yeah, so?”

Raleigh sometimes worries about his best friend.

“Okay guys, is everybody ready?” Coach Vanessa waves to gain their attention. “Right, we're going to separate in groups of five so you can work better but all of you’re going to do the warm up together. Everybody’s doing the tryouts, including the current members of the team.”

Raleigh glances briefly at Hansen, who’s in her red lacrosse uniform and stills manages to look good.

“Fine, come on! I want to see you running, you can do this!” Raleigh stars running and leaves Tendo behind with the coach.

“Your hair’s a mess.” She says to Tendo.

“Your whistle’s stupid.” He answers.   

Raleigh’s familiar with their bickering because, oh yeah, Vanessa is also Tendo’s adopted sister.

After the warm up, they get some sticks and form a line a few yards away from the net. “I want you to score as many points as you can.” Vanessa says.

Adam Casey’s playing as goalie and he’s grinning good-naturedly at them, Raleigh’s feeling pretty content. He’d missed lacrosse so much, it feels _right_ to be in the field.

A boy from his Biology class fails, but Cheung Wei and Sergio D’onofrio score, they’re both on the team so it’s not a surprise. Raleigh scores too. Tendo cheers.

Everything’s going pretty smoothly. Now that the coach has less candidates she tells them to form four teams with formal positions: three attackmen, three midfielders, three defenders and one goalie.

The first two teams play and it’s exciting, everybody’s cheering, players and students alike. This is what Raleigh loves most about lacrosse, he remembers the same feeling from when he was a child and it was Yancey playing with his team.

When the four quarters are over, it’s time for the next two teams. Raleigh, Hu and Cheung choose attackmen in his team. Chuck’s playing the same position in hers, which surprises nobody.

It’s sort of unorganized because official players are scattered and there’s new people playing, but they manage to wrap up a good game. At some point Raleigh’s going for the ball when someone rushes in front of him, grabbing the ball and sending him to the floor at the same time. It wouldn't have been a great deal except for the muttered “Jesus, move, has-been.”

That’s like a punch to the teeth.

After a long time, the coach stops the game when it’s on Raleigh’s team favor, excitedly, they hug and pat each other.  

“That was great boys!” says Vanessa, “take a break I’ll give you the results in a minute.”

Raleigh goes to to sit with Tendo, grinning broadly. He rolls his neck and Tendo pats his shoulder, “You totally are gonna get in,” he says. Raleigh thinks so too.

Everyone is still buzzing with excitement when Vanessa comes back and she has to stand on a bench to talk.

“I think everyone did great, you know all of you are part of the team because we’re the same school, and I’m not trying to be cheesy. But here, without further ado, it’s the list with the names of the official players: Hu Wei, Cheung Wei, Jin Wei, Sergio D’onofrio, Bruce Gage, Trevin Gage, Adam Casey, Charlie Hansen, Jasper Schoenfeld and Raleigh Becket!”

Everybody applauds and cheers, including Raleigh. The members are the same except for Raleigh and Jasper and most of the old players congratulate them enthusiastically. Raleigh can’t stop smiling.

“Very well done boys! Thanks everybody for coming, now go take a shower, you stink.”

The players go to do exactly that.

 

* * *

 

Newt arrives home in time to catch his parents before they leave for a conference out of town.

“Hi sweetie, how was school?” Asks his mother from the kitchen.

He shrugs, “Same as always, I like your dress, is it new?”

She smooths the red fabric and gives him a smile. “Thanks, it was your father’s anniversary gift.”

“Oh, it’s today? Congratulations.” He says, picking a bag of chips from a cupboard.

“Thank you.” She answers and takes the bag out of his hands. “Dinner’s ready, wash your hands.”

His mother likes to pretend that they are one of those families with a solid schedule for homemade dinners, well-loved plants and no communication issues. But his mother also spends one third of the year out traveling across the country and giving lectures with his father, and her plants need a hired botany undergraduate to take care of them.

Newt doesn’t really mind – much – but now he isn’t really up for one of his mom’s culinary experiments. He doesn’t try to hide his disappointment but then he remembers something.

“Hey, so… dad’s in a good mood, right?”

“Hmm, I guess. Why?”

“No, nothing.”

“What are you plotting?”

“Plotting? Nah, I don’t plot.”

“Hmhm.”

“Right, so what do you think of me getting a car?”

“Wow, a car.”

“It doesn’t have to be new or anything, but yeah.”

“I don’t know, Newt.”

“Come on, mom.”

She glances at him out of the corner of her eye and smiles, “Well, I think it’s a good idea, but you’ll have to talk with your father.”

“Yes! Thanks mom.” He says, kissing his mother’s cheek.

“Hey, calm down, it’s not a sure thing yet.”

“Yeah, sure.” As if his father would ever win an argument against his mother on the matter of raising Newt. His father never quite knew what to do with him.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call anyone while we’re gone?” Asks his mom.

“Mom, it’s not the first time I’ve stayed alone, I can take care of myself.”

She doesn’t look impressed by this. “Barely,” she huffs. “Which means you can’t take care of other beings. No wild animals this time, Newt.”

He grimaces. Yeah, that wasn’t one of his brightest ideas.

His father arrives not much later, when Newt’s setting the table, and ruffles Newt’s hair, still looking down at his phone. Newt doesn’t waste time.

“Hey dad, can I have a car?”

His father looks up at him. “Huh?”

“You know, a vehicle moving on wheels that –”

“Being a smartass won’t help your case, Newt. Whatever it might be.”

“My case is that I would like to get to school driving something with an actual engine, and as I already told mom, it doesn’t have to be new.”  

Right on cue, his mother emerges from the kitchen with a casserole of… something. Newt and his father repress grimace. “I think it’s a good idea,” she says. “It would give Newt independence. It could be good for him.”

Newt looks hopeful at his father, he gives him an unimpressed look, but says, “Fine. But you’ll pay part of it.” Ah. Okay, Newt hadn’t planned that.

“Um, how much are we talking here?” He asks.

“I suggest you look up a job, Newt.” His father says, merciless, as he sits at the table.

Newt also lowers himself to a chair, making strange gestures with his hands and probably, an equally strange face. “A job, dad? Where?” He looks at his mother but she’s busy serving the thing she’s trying to pass as food.  

“I don’t know, Newt, but you’re a smart boy, you’ll figure it out. Also you’ll have to get your license. You can do it while we’re out, then you can have a car.”

“Okay. Yeah, thanks dad.” He can do this, he’s a _genius_ after all.

 

* * *

 

They end up at Chuck’s house after her tryouts. Mako’s ecstatic, the houses are apart enough that she can’t see her old home, but it doesn’t matter. The travel’s familiar and Chuck’s house gives its back to the woods. It doesn’t matter the places she’s been, there’s something unique about Beacon Hill’s woods.

They stumble through the door, laughing and discarding scarfs and bags with a familiarity that almost hurts. Chuck yells, “Herc! We’re home!”

The first thing that comes to her mind is that Chuck said _we_ and _home_ together, and something in her chest grows, warm and happy. The second thing is that she said Herc Hansen was there.

“Your father’s home?” Mako asks surprised. With Herc’s job, she wasn’t expecting him to be.

Chuck rolls her eyes. “Day off. They almost had to throw him out at gunpoint.”

“Charlie Hansen, I certainly hope that by _we_ you mean yourself and a pizza.” Herc Hansen appears on the threshold of a door, followed by a bulldog that wails its tail at Chuck.

“I refuse to let us live on pizza, old man.” Chuck huffs and Herc stops, staring at Mako.

Hansen senior was undoubtedly part of the military. It’s evident in the way he carries himself, in his controlled expressions and in almost every other aspect of his life – except apparently his eating habits. Despite his demeanor, Mako always liked him, though she can understand why his and Chuck’s relationship is… strained.

“Good evening, Sir.” Mako says, amused at the way he’s looking at her.

“Fair suck of the sav! Mako!” Herc says and, unexpectedly, hugs her. Before she can react, he’s pulling away. “I almost didn’t believe Stacker when he called this morning. You’re both back, huh? Where you living now?”

“Clear Beacon Ridge, downtown.” She says, and searches for Chuck, she’s uncharacteristically quiet.

“Shame, we would like you here again. Are you staying for dinner?”

“She is, come on, Mori.” Interrupts Chuck and pulls her by the hand into the house. “I’m making something with actual proteins in it. This is Max, by the way.” She beams at the bulldog, who is kind of drooling on her designer boots.

“He’s adorable.” Mako says sincerely.

That’s how she ends up having dinner with the Hansens and taking home vegetarian lasagna to her father.

“How was your first day?” Sensei asks when she arrives home and lets herself fall on the couch with a _huf_.

“Surprisingly good.” She smiles. “I found Chuck Hansen, did you know that she skipped a year? She’s in some of my classes!”

Sensei raises a brow. Even though he knows first hand how smart Chuck is, he was always a little of wary of her when she was an angry child. Still, he sounds sincere when he says, “That’s impressive, I’m glad you found her. She cooked this?” He asks gesturing at the lasagna with a fork. “It’s really good.”

“They send his greetings.” Mako says, pulling from her bag a purple pouch.

“They? Herc was there?”

“Yes. He says to call him if you need help finding a job.”

“Hm, maybe I will. Now tell me, why did you take the mountain ash with you?” He nods at her lap.

Mako looks down at the black dust, she strokes the soft fabric of the pouch. “Just in case… I want them to be safe.”

She doesn’t hear him approach but then a gentle hand is stroking her hair. “You know you won’t be able to cross the protection barrier now.”

She shrugs, “I can just invite her over if I want to hang out.”

She thinks of how familiar it was to eat at the Hansen household, to listen to music on Chuck’s bed and to play with Max while Herc did the dishes. We’re home, she’d said.

Mako pulls the string of the pouch closed with a quick movement and stands up to work on her wolfsbane bullets.

 

* * *

 

Apart from the call from Tendo swearing he saw the lacrosse team from the Whitewater School for Girls arguing with the _scary attractive Russian girl from school_ , Raleigh’s evening is uneventful until Yancy arrives from work at midnight.

Raleigh actually stops on his tracks when he sees him.

His brother moves as if carrying a great weight, expression closed and his mouth in a tight, unforgiving line.

“What’s wrong?” Raleigh asks and he winces internally when his voice comes out small.

Yancy looks at him and he slowly shakes himself into life, just a lingering numbness behind his eyes. “Nothing, how was school?”

 "School was fine. What happened, Yancy?”

Yancy shakes his head. “Work, it was – bad.”

“How bad?” Demands Raleigh.

“Raleigh –” Yancey tries.

“No. Tell me how bad.” He cuts him off.

“... We had to call Herc in. He had the day off.” Yancey’s about to break, he knows, so he waits until he continues, “A double murder.” He finally says.

Raleigh suck a breath, this is Beacon Hills, they don’t have murders. Still, the only thing he cares about is that Yancy seems really affected.

“You knew them?” Raleigh asks, it’s the only reason he can think of as to why his brother is like this.

Yancey nods, “We went to Pan-Pacific together, they were a couple I knew.”

A shiver shakes his entire body. People Yancy’s age died, people Yancey probably still talked to – and Yancy’s one hundred times more in danger because he’s a _deputy_. Raleigh knows just one thing: he can’t lose Yancey. He would never recover.

His brother’s everything he’s left.

Yancy sees how distressed he is and at once he’s himself again, he crosses the space between them and buries Raleigh in his arms, tucking his head under his chin. “Hey, don’t.” He soothes, “We’re fine. I’m fine” Raleigh’s grip on his brother is iron and he’s not ashamed.

“Promise.” Raleigh hisses, but it’s muffled by Yancy’s shirt.

“I promise.” He says without hesitation. “Your turn. You’re alone all day and –”

“I promise.” Raleigh says and he carefully extricates himself from the embrace before Yancey stars blaming himself for things that are not his fault.

“Tell me what happened. Where did they find them?”

“You know, I probably shouldn't be sharing information with you.” He grins darkly. Raleigh just stares at him, Yancy sighs. “Fine, Daniel Smith and Alexandra Iglesias, they worked at the public pool. It was probably around eight, or at least that’s what the forensic said. They were still working on them when I left.”

“Do you guys have a suspect? Cause of death?”

“No. There wasn’t much left.  We only knew it was them because they were the only ones working that shift and they were definitely one female and one male.”

_There wasn’t much left_. Oh, god. Suddenly Raleigh doesn’t want to know more.

“Hey, let’s go. It’s really late and it’s school night. I have to at least pretend that I have rules and you obey them.”

Raleigh nods and follows Yancy upstairs.

 

* * *

 

Newt spends his time after dinner in his room, his parents already gone, browsing on the internet for jobs and cars – especially cars.

At some point he starts drowsing and he rests his head on his desk, facing the window. It’s starting to get dark so he doesn’t bother with the blinds. His eyelids are heavy and occasionally his eyes flutter close, but he fights sleep, just to be difficult.

Newt’s in a state between asleep and awake and his mind starts to wander. His thoughts travel effortlessly from his new comic’s plot, to his mother kissing his cheek goodbye, to Hermann Gottlieb’s brown eyes, to –

Red eyes. A black, huge shape. It was there one second and then – Newt shakes himself awake, his heart in his throat, he looks wildly around his room and then his eyes are tragically drawn to the window. He tries to remember what he was thinking, what did he saw exactly,  but it’s already fading away, escaping his grip.

He stands up clumsily and closes the windows blinds as quickly as he can. He gets shakily under the covers and urges himself to forget he even saw anything.

When he wakes up, he’s convinced it was just a bad dream. He’s never falling asleep on his desk again.

When he – reluctantly –  rides his bike to school, he slows down in front of the public pool.

He stares at the yellow tape that surrounds the entire building. It reads: Crime Scene.


End file.
